Their routes to this point couldn’t be more different.

Aden Holloway has always been on the recruiting fast track as a highly-rated player throughout his high school career as a result of his 3-point shooting ability. He was ranked in the top 100 since 2021 and climbed up into the top 20 of the 247Sports rankings to earn a five-star designation by his commitment date. He played at the basketball factory Prolific Prep in preparation not just for a college career at a high-major program, but a quick ascent to the NBA.

Tre Donaldson had to choose between football and basketball. His basketball recruiting profile on 247Sports shows him in a football uniform for the Under Armour All-American game. He played quarterback and safety in high school at the Florida State University School, and was a 3-star recruit in both football and basketball. He picked basketball, picked Auburn and averaged about 10 minutes per game off the bench last year as a freshman.

Yet those routes have merged together into one combined elite point guard leading Auburn’s highly efficient, high-scoring offense to begin the 2023-24 season. It was once again evident in Auburn’s 83-59 win over Notre Dame on Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The two combined for 25 points, 6-9 shooting on 3-pointers, 10 assists and just two turnovers in the win.

Holloway has been the flashier player, making deep and contested 3-pointers in all three games this season. Donaldson has been a reliable ball-handler running the offense. Both have been very efficient in playing their own styles. Both had an equal +15 efficiency rating against Notre Dame and both had a positive +/- rating — Holloway was second on the team at +21.

“Tremendous,” head coach Bruce Pearl said of his point guard guards. “It’s been a great competition all summer and fall. They’ve been pushing and pulling each other. We’re going to have a good point guard out there at all times. They’ve both got to improve defensively for us to have a chance to do what we want to do. But they’re both brilliant shooters.”

Pearl mentioned the competition throughout the leadup to the season which largely was led by Donaldson. Pearl has said it was largely Donaldson as the first point guard out during many drills and scrimmages. Donaldson was the starter during Auburn’s open practice scrimmages in October. Holloway injured his ankle in the opening minutes of a scrimmage against Furman, which meant Donaldson would have the vast bulk of the point guard load in those two exhibitions (Furman and Auburn-Montgomery).

With Holloway still recovering, Donaldson started Auburn’s opener against Baylor and again against Southeastern Louisiana.

And while Donaldson played well, it was Holloway off the bench who ended up as the star in each of those two first games.

Combined this season, Holloway and Donaldson are scoring 21.3 points per game and eight assists per game against 3.4 turnovers per game.

But come the game against Notre Dame, Pearl flipped the starting lineup, and put his talented freshman out first.

Frankly, it may not matter who Auburn starts — Holloway played only six more minutes than Donaldson in Thursday’s win — it’s getting one combined elite point guard regardless.

Their play has opened up Auburn’s offense and, as Pearl said, helping Auburn already begin to find its identity.

“Obviously, if you’ve got to guard in the perimeter, it opens up driving lanes,” Pearl said. “It opens up Johni Broom on the inside, Dylan Cardwell. I just think we’ve had great spacing and we’re getting open looks. We’re getting open looks and that’s what you want. Try to get a feel for how other teams are going to guard. It does look like in November this team has got an idea of what we want to try to do offensively.”

Led by Holloway and Donaldson bringing the ball up the floor, Auburn has scored at least 80 points in each of its first three games — the fourth-best scoring average in the SEC so far, and Auburn has played more high-major opponents than most teams in the league already. Auburn is 22nd in the country and best in the SEC in assists per game.

Some of Auburn’s identity relies on 3-point shooting, an area where it has struggled since the trip to the Final Four in 2019.

This year though? Auburn is shooting better than 40% as a team from deep — one of the top 30 rates in the nation and third best in the SEC. It is making 9.7 3-pointers per game thus far.

And then there’s Holloway specifically. He truly can make a shot from anywhere on the floor, and it shows in his 52.4% 3-point shooting rate so far this season. His 3.67 3-point makes per game is the best in the SEC.

So his coaches are just going to let him shoot. He doesn’t even need an open look.

“Aden has got some special about him,” Pearl said. “He’s going to make some tough ones; he’s going to make some 4-point plays. He’s going to come off that screen, and it doesn’t take a lot to get off. Every time he shoots it, we think it’s going in.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]